Chapter 1 - Leaving

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Yeonhee flinched as her father raised his hand to slap her on the face once again. Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried her best to not let them spill, as it would anger her parents even more. Her mother glared at her angrily and pinched her arm till Yeonhee yelped in pain.

“Didn’t I tell you to come straight home after school and not dilly dally? Where did you go?!” Her father yelled at her, causing her to jump in fear at the volume of his voice.

“I-I was in school. Doing a project with my group members…” She answered his question with a shaky voice. Before she could explain further more on the situation, she felt a slap on her cheek once more. Her cheeks were now bruised from the multiple slaps that she had received from her father. Unable to stand it anymore, she let the tears flow down her red and swollen cheeks. Her mother grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

“Go to your room now. You’re grounded.” Yeonhee did as she was told and disappeared into her room. At last, the beating had stopped. She sat at the edge of her bed and examined the bruises on her arm. Contrary to the pinching, her mother had also clawed her with her fingernails till there were scratches all over her arm. Some were even bleeding. Yeonhee winced as she moved her body slowly on the bed and covered the blanket over herself. Sure, the bruises hurt like hell. But the thing that hurt the most was her heart. She had never figured out why her parents were so abusive. Since young, they had been beating her whenever she made a mistake. It was so severe to the point that she had to see  psychiatrist once as she was traumatized by her parents’ beatings. Till this point, they had never stopped beating her. And she was already 18. Tears dripped down her face when she recalled the horrifying times when her father got so mad that he just lashed out at her. Before she could think anymore, her eyes started to close and she drifted off to sleep with tears still flowing down her cheeks.

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The next morning, Yeonhee woke up with swollen eyes. She had been crying the entire of last night till she fell asleep due to fatigue. Scrambling out of bed, she quickly stood up and made her bed neatly before her parents could come in and check. As if on cue, her father entered her room without knocking. Seeing as Yeonhee had already woken up, he nodded and turned to her.

“Stop taking your own sweet time and get ready for school or you'll be late.” With that, he walked out of the room and slammed the door shut. Yeonhee sighed. It was the same routine every morning, coming into her room to check up on her. If she was still in bed, her father would kick her to wake her up. It hurt pretty badly so she had set her alarm to thirty minutes before her father came in just in case he decided to check on her earlier. Snapping out of her daze, she gathered all the things she needed and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. When she went downstairs, her parents were already getting ready to go out. Before they left the house, her mother turned back and pointed at Yeonhee.

With a threatening voice, she said, “You had better come back home on time today or you shall face the consequences. No dilly dallying. If I don't see you at home before 5, you'll get it from me.” Without even saying good bye, her mother closed the door and left. Staring at the door, Yeonhee whispered, “Good bye and have a nice day…”

As her parents did not prepare any breakfast for her, Yeonhee had to grab something from the convenience store to munch on. She put on her shoes swiftly, grabbed her school bag and went out of the house. Unchaining her old bike, she pedaled to the nearest convenience store to get her breakfast. She looked around the mart and grabbed the cheapest bread she could find along with a small carton of banana milk. Paying for the items, she left the store and accidentally bumped into someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry for bumping into you.” She bowed and looked up. The boy infront of her was good-looking with flawless facial features. She almost gaped at the handsome male. Whoa.. So good-looking.. She thought. Suddenly, a voice snapped her out of her daze. “It’s alright.” The boy smiled at her and left. Yeonhee blinked a couple times as she watched the boy walk away. With a shrug, she got on her bike and headed to school.

Pedaling as fast as she could, she reached the school before the gates could close. Phew.. That was close. If not I would had gotten detention from Mr. Han.. Yeonhee shuddered at the thought of that. Besides receiving detention, she would have to answer to her parents when she got home. And she didn’t want that. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she pulled on the straps of her backpack and walked to her classroom. Fortunately for her, her homeroom teacher hadn’t arrived yet and she could finally relax. Putting her bag down, Yeonhee looked out of the window and started to daydream. A knock on her table jolted her out of her senses and she turned her head to look at the person who interrupted her. It was the most annoying boy of her class.

“Hey little girl. I’m surprised you came so late today. Why? Slept late last night?” He smirked and his friends snickered. Yeonhee ignored him and continued staring at the scenery outside of the window. He continued throwing insults at her. Before she could take hit him, the homeroom teacher entered the room.

“Alright everyone. Settle down. We have a surprise test today.” Groans could be heard echoing around the classroom as the teacher started handing out the papers. Minki, the boy that annoyed Yeonhee, purposely pushed her water bottle and water dripped onto her test paper, making it wet. Yeonhee stood up angrily and glared at him. Before she could say anything, the teacher came over.

“What are you doing, Lee Yeonhee? Sit down. You know that you’re not supposed to talk during a test. Come to the teacher’s office after school.” He told her sternly. She sighed and sat down, throwing a murderous glare at Minki. He simply laughed and high-fived his friends. Oh boy.. So much for not receiving detention today. I’m gonna get killed by umma and appa when I return home later.. Yeonhee tiredly took her pen and started concentrating on her test paper instead.

After school, she went to meet her teacher at the teacher’s office and he gave her detention for two hours. After detention, Yeonhee hurriedly grabbed her bike and left the school. On the way home, she passed by Minki and his group of friends who were smoking.

“Oh hey. Where do you think you’re going, huh?” He smirked and came closer to her. Yeonhee backed away. “Leave me alone. Didn’t you already humiliate me this morning?” She snapped. Minki looked back at his friends and laughed.

“Ooh, feisty. Did you get that from your parents?” He laughed again and poked her forehead. “Look, let’s not waste any time. Just give us some money, we need them to buy some cigarettes. Then we’ll leave you alone.”

“I don’t have any money.” She coldly replied. Minki stopped laughing and looked straight at her with a horrible expression on his face. “You want to play this way huh? Fine then. Get her.” His friends lunged forward and grabbed onto Yeonhee’s arms. She screamed and thrashed about but they were far too strong for her to handle. They pushed her onto the ground roughly and her knee scraped on the pavement. She looked up and was hit in the face with a splash of water. Minki waved the dollar bills in his hands.

“Serves you right, . Thanks for the spare cash!” He cackled and kicked her bike before leaving with his friends. Yeonhee watched as they leave before she stood up and dusted the dirt off her uniform. Her knee was starting to bleed but she ignored it and continued her journey home. When she reached home, she was already five minutes late. Scared that her parents would scold her again, she slowly opened the door and entered the house. As expected, her parents were home and their expressions didn’t seem very good.

“You’re late again.” Her father said without looking at her. Then he turned towards her and shouted, “Why are you drenched? And your uniform is dirty. Did you get into a fight?”

“No appa, I—” Slap! Yeonhee doubled backwards as her father slapped her with so much force that it left a mark on her cheek. The pain was stinging and before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face once more.

“You never learn, huh?” He snarled furiously and continued abusing his daughter once more. Yeonhee’s mother simply stood at the side and watched. When he was done, they threw her into her room and locked the door from the outside. Yeonhee couldn’t protest. If she did, she would have received another round of beating. Sitting up with her back leaning against the door, she cried and cried till she fell asleep.

Waking up with beads of perspiration trickling down her forehead, Yeonhee realised that it was only 2AM in the morning. Suddenly, a crazy thought popped into her mind. She quickly stood up and took out her duffel bag and stuffed all her clothes and necessities into it. Afterwards, she pressed her ear against the door. It was silent. Making up her mind, she opened her window and jumped out of it. Thankfully her room was not very high and she landed onto the soft grass without getting hurt. Scrambling up with her bag, she quickly left the area. You’ve finally did it, Lee Yeonhee. You’ve finally gathered the courage to leave this crappy household.